Trexosaur's Progress

zontar · **Posted:** Sun Mar 06, 2016 4:08 pm

going a week AF is a big deal. it'll make it a lot easier to do 1-4 AF days at a time now, at which point most of us start to not give quite a $hit about AL.....

Trexosaur · **Joined:** Sat Dec 12, 2015 7:15 pm **Posts:** 11

Sorry y'all-- it's been 7 weeks since I last posted! I have been pretty busy and distracted, and alcohol has been low on my priority list.

Week 21: 26 units, 4 AF.
Week 22: 32 units, 4 AF.
Week 23: 34 units, 4 AF.
Week 24: 12 units, 6 AF.
Week 25: 32 units, 3 AF.
Week 26: 20 units, 4 AF.
Week 27: 19 units, 6 AF.

Code:

70                            0                                                    
65                                                                                 
60                                                                                 
55                                                                                 
50             0                    0                                              
45                         0     0     0        0                                  
40          0                             0                                        
35    0  0                                                                         
30                0  0                                            0  0     0       
25 0                    0                    0        0        0                   
20                                                 0        0                 0    
15                                                                               0 
10                                                       0              0          
05                                                                                 
00                                                                                 
   1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

There is really not anything interesting to report: no slip-ups. I think at this point most of my drinking stems from boredom and a lack of motivation to do anything productive. But I feel my mental health is leagues better than it was 6 months ago: I feel like my stress level is way down and I just feel "at peace" a lot more of the time.

Insights: I was looking at my spreadsheet of drinking data (giant nerd alert) and found that my average number of units per drinking session has dropped from 17 units to 11 units. The amount of alcohol I have drunk per week has decreased by about 50% over the time I have been doing TSM. So 70% of my drinking reduction has been from reducing the amount I drink per session, and 30% has come from spacing my drinking days further apart.
I also noticed that I have only had one alcohol-free weekend in the 27 weeks I have been doing TSM. I think it will be a big step forward for me when I achieve that.

JoeSixPack · **Joined:** Sun Dec 06, 2015 11:28 pm **Posts:** 1646

Looking good, Trex!

As you cut your drinking further, I expect you're going to come up with things to fill in the time as you're anesthetizing your brain less and less. Circuits will just be coming back online naturally.

You might want to check out a book by Alex Korb called "They Upward Spiral". It goes over some of the functions of the brain and how that plays into depression, but more importantly shows how a relatively small change in brain chemistry can echo and "reverberate" throughout the brain to "spiral" into depression. The author posits that the reverse is true as well, that you can make a small change in one part of the brain, and cause that to reverberate and echo through the brain, causing an "upward spiral". Kind of how with "One Little Pill" (Nal) you can leverage a little bit of effort into big results. Worth a read, for sure. Though it mentions depression on the cover, it's more about anxiety and stress and what parts of the brain are involved in that. When you go over the information on the Striatum and what it does, you'll see where TSM fits into things, as the Striatum is kind of the "home" of AUD. You can find previews on Amazon and Google Books, gets good reviews on GoodReads too.

time_to_change · **Posted:** Fri Apr 22, 2016 12:13 pm

Great thread Trex...the way you are handling this journey proves you're more mature than just 24yrs! For many of us, it's been double or more the years to have your insight! Good Luck and please keep posting as I enjoy following your achievements!

zontar · **Posted:** Sat Apr 23, 2016 4:47 pm

I don't know, I'm twice as old and pretty sure I'm twice as smart.......

Trexosaur · **Joined:** Sat Dec 12, 2015 7:15 pm **Posts:** 11

It has been a month since I last posted and things have been going great.

Week 28: 21 units, 5 AF.
Week 29: 25 units, 3 AF.
Week 30: 22 units, 4 AF.
Week 31: 25 units, 4 AF.
Week 32: 18 units, 5 AF.

There is not much to add-- I am definitely at a plateau. Mainly it is getting easier to stop myself from drinking if I want to. But some days I don't have responsibilities and I fall into a habit and drink. I don't feel like I have made much progress on slowing down how much I drink at any one time, but looking at a graph of drinks per session tells a different story:

I'll definitely look into "The Upward Spiral": I'm a big fan of cognitive behavioral therapy and positive feedback loops, so I want to give that a go.

JoeSixPack · **Joined:** Sun Dec 06, 2015 11:28 pm **Posts:** 1646

I dunno, Trex. Looks like you're vectoring down on all counts, so keep at it!

Trexosaur · **Joined:** Sat Dec 12, 2015 7:15 pm **Posts:** 11

Hi Everyone,

It has been about a year since I last posted. The remainder of 2016 was uneventful-- I was drinking about once per week. It was definitely more of a habit than a compulsion. I stopped tracking how much I was drinking because it made me kind of neurotic and I felt confident that my drinking wasn't increasing. I ended up tracking my numbers for a full year and it was super useful up to this point.

So far in 2017 I haven't had anything to drink in 3 months! It is not a goal I set nor does it feel like an accomplishment because the desire to drink is simply not there. I choose to be happy, alert, and conscious rather than drunk and miserable.

JoeSixPack · **Joined:** Sun Dec 06, 2015 11:28 pm **Posts:** 1646

Sounds like you're there, Trex! Well done and congratulations on your freedom from the booze beast!

What are you getting up to with all the money you're saving on drinking? Planning to get away on a vacation?

Trexosaur's Progress

Who is online